A Busy Year full of Surprises
by awn
Summary: pre-DH;Slash; JPLE; Marauders' 7th year: The Marauders goes through their seventh year at Hogwarts, which is full of surprises. Will James get his girl? Will the thing they do not believe in come true? Would destroy the reading of the story if I wrote mor
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun. I own the story.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Additional warnings:** Slash, eventual language, eventual violence.  
**Author's Note:** See further down.  
**Word Count: **At all, at least 63,500 words. Impossible to say as it is not finished. This part is 616 words.

* * *

**NOTES BEFORE THIS FANFICTION!**

---This story is an Alternative Universe since I have Lily in the year after the Marauders. My beta reader told me I had to call this story AU because of that. Please do not get scared of the AU; I will not include any other AU (except the slash). Alternative Universe means I am not following the books in this story.  
---This story is written after 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,' and will therefore most likely contain minimal spoilers for the book.  
---The rating of this piece is T/PG-13. Officially, it is a 13-year-old minimum public. Though, I cannot force anybody not to read this fic, so READ ON YOUR OWN RISK!  
---All rights belongs to JKR, except the story itself, and the characters I've made up, and the story itself.  
---Will contain slash – Male/Male relationship. But no sexual scenes in this fic - it would not be rated PG-13 then.  
---The birthdays of Lily, James, Peter and Sirius are made up by me.

* * *

**A Busy Year full of Surprises**

**Prologue**

The seventeen-year-old boy (or man, actually) tiredly gripped his wand. He sighed; he did not like this, not at all. Oh, if he had not been so terrible clumsy as a child … If he just had not been so inattentive then … If he had seen the damned man and had hidden … Very deep inside his head he knew that it was not his fault, but, as most people do, he needed somebody to blame, and in this case, the man found himself easiest to blame.

While he lifted his wand, he focused on the place where he was supposed to spend every painful night and with a funny noise he suddenly stood outside the hut. The hut's windows had been covered with boards. The place was nearly ramshackle; he had almost destroyed it during the last six years. He thought about the kind old man who had made this shack for him so he could go to the other place. He felt guilty about what he and his friends had done here, right under the old man's nose.

He smiled. It was strange; the old man hadn't suspected anything, especially since it had gone on for a couple of years. The werewolf smiled as he went inside the hut. He missed his friends. He sat down on a chair, waiting for the full moon. Whenever he had waited in the past, he had always stuck his nose in a book, but now, he did not. Instead, he checked the watch on his left wrist.

Twenty past eleven in the evening. He wondered why he hadn't taken it off. He knew that in his soon-to-be transformed state, he could easily destroy it. So, he laid it on the right corner of a table that hadn't been damaged as much as the other pieces of furniture. It now showed half past eleven. The werewolf sat down. It was going to be a long night. Something told him not to put the watch so irresponsibly on the table. He agreed; as a werewolf, he did not know what he did. He hated it. He did not even know when he hurt somebody.

Then, twenty minutes to midnight, he remembered that he had not bolted the door from the outside. He used to do that on the holidays when his friends were not with him. Then, they explored the village and the mountains, or whatever else came into their minds.

A quarter to twelve. The boy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He made a grimace. This could not be anybody's idea of 'fun'; if anything, it was the opposite. He also thought about his parents' – especially his mother's – faces when he left. They were full of compassion, which ached in the boy's heart.

_If I hadn't been so incredibly stupid_, he thought. _If I just hadn't gone near that beast … Here I am, waiting to be transformed … Oh, I'm so clumsy! I don't like this at all. Please, anybody, help me!_

The boy knew that these thoughts were not going to make anything better and realized there were ten minutes left. _Well,_ his thoughts continued, _I had better calm down. I'll be furious while transformed –I just remembered. It won't exactly be any less painful if I'm angry before I'm transfigured, you know_.  
So he did what his mind told him to do, and sat down and 'meditated', as he called it. He sat with his legs crossed and breathed in … and out … in … out … in … and out … in …  
He felt his body shake as a fluffy fur spread on his body. The transformation had just begun.

* * *

**Author's Notes;** This is the first 'long thing' I have written in English, but I've written three One-Shots in English, which are located on my profile. Pen name: _awn_ – Please, don't be to mean, but do review, please! 

Thousands of thanks to my beta reader, Janis, for her help and time, and congratulations to Amanda on her fifteenth birthday that was on 24th July. I know this is awfully late, but as you say in Sweden; Better late than never. By the way; Janis says that my readers will love the Prologue, and is it because the monologue, I can promise there will be a lot of such.


	2. I: Two Letters

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun. I own the story.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Additional warnings:** Slash, eventual language, eventual violence.  
**Word Count: **At all, at least 63,500 words. Impossible to say as it is not finished. This part is 3318 words.

* * *

**Chapter One**  
_Two Letters_

Lily Evans moved a little in her sleep. The seventeen-year-old girl was a beautiful young woman, and at her school, almost all of the boys thought she was good-looking. Many of them seemed to be in love with her. Lily's parents told her she had always been sweet. As a baby, she had been loved by the neighbourhood. Her sister, Petunia, had not. If Lily was the colour black, Petunia was white. In almost every thing they could think of, they were different.

Lily loved school. Petunia hated it. Lily had already done half of her summer homework, and now, it was the morning of … Which date and what time was it? Lily sat up and reached after her calendar and her alarm clock. Studying the calendar, she saw that it was the morning of July the twenty-fourth. She looked at the white dot with a black border around it. _That means the full moon was last night_. Her thoughts immediately went to Remus and what he had had to endure during the night. She sighed. She felt sorry for her best friend.

Remus had been caught by Fenrir Greyback twelve years ago when Remus was five years old. Remus himself had kept his condition quiet from everyone at Hogwarts. Every full moon he used to tell people that he felt sick and needed to visit the hospital wing or that his mother was sick and he needed to visit her. Remus' best and eldest friends, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, discovered in their third year that Remus was a werewolf. Two years later, Remus had confided to Lily that Potter, Black and Pettigrew were unregistered Animaguses. Lily smiled. Maybe James was not really stupid after all, although he certainly seemed stupid when he bullied other people. To herself, Lily hoped that he would stop bullying people and that he had grown up during the summer …

_Wait a moment!_ she thought to herself. _Why would I hope that James has grown up during the summer? Why would I feel sympathy? Oh, God, please, what's happening to me? Why do I all of a sudden think of James Potter? Why can't I stop thinking about him now?_

A brown owl appeared and delivered the day's edition of the _Daily Prophet_. Lily got out of her bed and went to her white desk in the right corner. She opened the first drawer and took out her purse. She counted up five bronze knuts and put them into the leather bag that was attached to the owl's leg. The owl hooted as Lily took the paper, and then flew away.

_Well_, Lily thought,_ I'm going to reserve the newspaper for the breakfast. Then Dad will see how hard and irritating it is to try to talk with people that have their noses in a paper all the time. Oh yes!_ Lily looked at her alarm clock again as she remembered that she had not paid attention to the time when she first had thought about checking it. The thoughts about Remus and his friends had made her forget what she was actually doing.

Remus and Lily had become good friends during the last two years. _Those two years_ … That reminded Lily about her terrible O.W.L. year. She studied 'all the time,' according to Lily's friends. Or **friend**, actually, the only friend she seemed to have at Hogwarts, the school she attended. She had gone to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry for five years now, and she was about to begin her sixth year in September this year.

She thought about last year's Hogwarts' letter, which had been thicker than normal. When she opened it, a badge with the letter 'P' fell out. Oh, how lucky Lily felt then. She actually screamed with joy. Her parents – and sister – fully understood what it meant and that felt great. Even though Lily had thought her sister would not care, she was only half right. Petunia did not care about Lily's _successes_; but she really did care about Lily's misfortunes. Petunia cared about Lily's adversities because that was the part she could tease Lily with. Yet, such adversities were not ordinary, but rather the opposite. Academically, Lily almost never failed, but it was possible that Petunia might soon fail, and Lily was pretty sure about it. Petunia was a lazy cow, according to Lily, but Lily had never dared saying that out loud.

Lily sat her O.W.L. year. She remembered that time very well. She had been on the verge of a collapse the whole fifth year, worrying about all her tests, homework and even lessons. She just could not calm down! She always thought about studying methods, the charm to get rid of a Boggart – _Riddikulus _– and how many feet and inches all her homework needed to be… As a matter of practice, Lily had written her essays at least a foot longer than the teacher had told them, and it was often more. Lily's friends and family always told her she had performance anxiety, but Lily just dismissed it with a wave of her hand. She just wanted to do her best, and saw an 'Exceeds Expectations' as a failure. She could not bring herself to even consider getting an 'Acceptable' or … She shuddered, she did not want to think of getting a failing grade, such as 'Poor,' 'Dreadful' or 'Troll' … Ugh, she did not like thinking about this. To fail in school was one of her biggest fears.

She remembered the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher from her second year. She had always been very interested in Defence Against the Dark Arts, especially then. It was important to protect oneself now that 'You-Know-Who' held the United Kingdom in terror. Lily normally used his real name, _Lord Voldemort_. Her classmates at Hogwarts, almost every wizard or witch she knew, had always told her to say 'You-Know-Who,' and when Lily said 'Voldemort' by accident, her friends seemed to become petrified with fear. Lily remembered she had overheard a conversation between Professor Dumbledore, her Headmaster, and Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher, two years ago. Professor McGonagall said something about Voldemort – Lily could not exactly remember what, but that was not important. Dumbledore had said that the 'fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.' Lily tried to convince everybody she knew about the fact, but most people she told did not seem to care, nor believe that Albus Dumbledore had originally said it.

_Well,_ she thought, _maybe in this day and age people don't think their great defender is a nut – Maybe they think saying 'Voldemort' is a way of inviting trouble… _

'Breakfast, my princesses! Get up; porridge on the table!' Lily heard her dad's shout. 'You can't sleep all day! Where are my beautiful daughters? Breakfast!'

Lily got up from the white Gustavian chair she sat in, and went to her door and opened it, just to see her father preparing to shout again. Her dad was quite tall and had green eyes, just like the ones Lily had. He was black-haired though; her red hair came from her mother. Lily's father, named Christopher Evans, had the same mouth as Lily.

'Good morning yourself, father,' Lily smiled. 'You don't have to scream outside _my_ room. You know that, don't you?'

'Well, honey, I suppose I haven't got to do that. You're as lively in the morning as I am. I actually should know that by now.'

'Yes, I think you should. Why don't you stand outside Petunia's room and shout instead? I don't believe a normal person could sleep so much.'

'Lily, you know what I think about the word "normal". There is no such thing as a "normal" person. Every person is unique. There is only one single person in this world that is exactly like you, and that's yourself. So, you shouldn't call anyone "normal" or "abnormal". Haven't I told both you and your sister that every day since the day you were born? And, I've told you this lots of times, haven't I?

'Yes, dad, you've told me this twice a day for a little more than sixteen years now. I'm aware that "normal" is a matter of perception and every human is unique and created by God.'

'You've gotten it right, sweetheart. I love you, my little baby girl. You have grown too fast. 'You're of age now, aren't you?'

'Yeah Yes – I'm sure of age on our seventeenth birthday …'

'Where are you going after you graduate?'

'Dunno … We'll have to see that in about a year.'

- - - - -

Lily sat down at the breakfast table with her father, Christopher, on her right, and Petunia on her left. Her mother, Marion, sat opposite her. Lily's mother was a beautiful woman. She had the same red hair as Lily had, and Lily had her mother's brow and ears. Actually the only thing that was different between then was that Lily had green eyes. Her mother's were blue. Lily thought they were very beautiful, and as a child, she had always been jealous of her mother's eyes. But now that she had grown up, she knew that you could not get everything you wanted, and that you should be happy with what you had. And so Lily was. She knew that she was lucky to have gotten so much from her mother and couldn't complain about not getting her mother's eyes. And that was a lot compared to Petunia, who had grey eyes. Nobody knew were she had gotten them from. She had also blonde hair, and nobody knew where that had come from, either.

Lily sat down on a chair, took a roll and buttered it, while saying, 'Good morning!'

'Good morning, dear,' said her mother. 'How did you sleep?'

'Good.' As Lily had predicted, her father sat with his paper. So, Lily took out her copy of the _Daily Prophet_ and looked at the front page. _Oh, thank God, no attacks today_.

'Why do you look so relieved?' her mother asked.

'No attacks today,' Lily answered. She had opened her paper now, so her side of the table was totally covered with it. She thought about Lord Voldemort's other attacks during the summer; the most recent one was just three days ago in north Scotland. It was terrible. A whole family had been killed just because a 'pure-blood' witch had married a 'half-blood' wizard – they and their three children: five, ten and fifteen years old were dead. Lily had a vague memory of the eldest boy; he had been in Ravenclaw a year below her. If Lily remembered correctly, the girl was blonde and quite tall like Petunia. When she first met her, Lily had decided that she did not like her, only because of the girl's looks … How mean and judging can you be?

_Lily_, she thought, _there is no point burying yourself in guilty and grief for that. You know, 'shit happens, but you have to go on.' And, the girl didn't knew what you thought about her; she wasn't sad because of it … Wait … Am I sure of that? Am I sure she didn't know?_ Lily felt even guiltier now. _You will never know, plus, she **did not know!** I told you we didn't know each other … Well, I didn't know her, but that's not an excuse for not blaming …_ She sighed at her thoughts and continued to read.

But now, she could only think about Voldemort's attacks. Another attack came into her mind; it had been on the second day home after school. Lily then read about a sixty-five-year-old squib who had been a widow; her husband had been three years older than she was and he had – according to the _Daily Prophet_ – died five years earlier from a heart attack. And then she remembered the Death Eaters that had attacked a Muggle Family and disappeared.

The Ministry of Magic didn't seem to have much success in their search for Voldemort. They did not report anything in the _Daily Prophet_, so Lily assumed that it had not gone well. The _Prophet_ only reported things that were good for the Ministry. Lily snorted. She did not like the fact that her only source for news was ruled by the authorities. _Brilliant_. She put the paper on the table and rolled her eyes up toward their ceiling.

'What?' her sister Petunia asked. 'Is it because one and one makes three, but you think it's wrong, 'cause you say it's four?'

'Ha ha, very funny,' said Lily with a touch of sarcasm.

'Isn't that what you think?'

'Dad, tell her to stop!'

'Petunia, honey, stop teasing your sister.'

'You always do as she says, don't you?'

'No, I do not and –'

Lily didn't hear what her father was going to add, because Petunia became furious.

'DON'T TELL ME YOU AREN'T ALWAYS DOING AS SHE SAYS! DON'T TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE US BOTH, AND THAT YOU LOVE ME AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE HER, OR THAT YOU LOVE HER AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE ME, BECAUSE THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU HAVE NEVER LOVED ME AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE THAT,' she pointed at Lily, 'BECAUSE THEN, SOMETIMES YOU WOULD TAKE MY PART! AND YOU DON'T DO THAT! NONE OF YOU HAVE EVER LOVED ME, AND YOU NEVER WILL, EITHER! WHAT HAVE I DONE? WHAT DOES SHE HAVE THAT I DON'T HAVE? IS IT BECAUSE SHE IS A WITCH? IT IS, ISN'T IT? **ANSWER ME**!'

Lily's father's face was white. 'Petunia, dear'

'NO! DON'T YOU CALL ME "DEAR"! YOU DON'T LOVE ME! AND DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME! YOU'RE ALWAYS KEEPING UP APPEARANCES TO ME, AREN'T YOU? I '

'Petunia,' her mother said calmly but firmly. 'We do love you both very much, and we actually do take your part –'

'OH, DON'T PRETEND WITH ME!

'SHUT UP!' Lily roared. This was too much for her. 'Thanks Mum,' she added as she took her dishes to the sink, quickly rinsed them, and got out of the room as fast as possible.

-----

Lily thought back to the previous summer. It had been just like this one. Petunia had erupted in a similar outburst and Lily had gone to her room for some peace and quiet, which could not be found anywhere else. In fact, while it was not exactly quiet in her room, it was the quietest place in the house..

Lily had closed her door carefully. Suddenly, an owl came into view outside the window.

_Oh no_, Lily thought. She went to the window and opened it, and the owl came in. The owl was grey and white and had a letter attached to the leg. _Oh, no_, she thought again. She lifted her shaking hands and freed the owl from the yellow parchment envelope. The owl hooted and flew away. She watched it until she could not see it anymore.

Should she open the letter now, alone, in her room upstairs? Or should she open it downstairs with her mum and dad? Petunia might be there – the same angry Petunia who would probably be happy if Lily didn't do well. Deciding that it was only right for her parents to see her grades, she ran down the stairs, crying: 'Mum … Dad …'

'Yes, honey?'

'My O.W.L. grades are here.'

'Oh … Exciting … Do they have different grades than we do?'

'Yes. There is O, _Outstanding_, the highest grade; then comes E, _Exceeds Expectations_; then A for _Acceptable_. They are the passing grades.'

'And the failing ones?' her dad asked anxiously.

'There is P for _Poor_; then D for _Dreadful_; and, at last, T for _Troll_.'

'OK … Well … Open it, open it!'

'I will, I will …' Lily took the parchment envelope in her hands. She studied the emerald green writing on the front page: 'Lily Evans'.

'The O.W.L.s are the most important tests,' she said.

'Yes, yes, open it quickly now!'

'I will, I will.' And so, with shaking hands, she folded up the parchment in the envelope.

_ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS_

_Passing Grades:  
Outstanding (O)  
Exceeds Expectations (E)  
Acceptable (A)_

_Failing Grades:  
Poor (P)  
Dreadful (D)  
Troll (T)_

_  
LILY MARION EVANS HAS ACHIEVED_

_Astronomy: O  
Care of Magical Creatures: O  
Charms: O  
Herbology: O  
History of Magic: O  
Muggle Studies: O  
Potions: O  
Arithmancy: O  
Ancient Runes: O  
Transfiguration: O  
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O  
Divination: E_

'Lily,' her mother said, 'your results are wonderful! Twelve subjects and eleven with the highest grades, and the only one you didn't make the highest grade on, you made the second highest grade. This is going to be rewarded! What would you like?'

'Well, Mum, I could use an owl –'

'What are you going to do with an owl?'

'Witches and wizards use owls to communicate by something called Owl Post.'

'It is? Hmm … Where can we get an owl then?'

'In Diagon Alley.'

'OK. When should we go there?'

'When the book list arrives. It will arrive sometime this month, I hope.'

-----

That July was the hottest month in a very long time. Lily and her parents visited many different beaches and lakes, most of them around their home. Petunia did not spend much time with them. She had been angry at both her parents and her sister since the day Lily's O.W.L. grades had arrived.

Now, it was the end of July of the following year. Lily and her mother lay outside the house, basking in the sunshine. Lily had brought along one of her old school books and was studying. It was a book from her third year. She reviewed it so she wouldn't forget what she had learned, and she found it very enjoyable. Petunia thought Lily was insane, preferring a school book instead of a 'normal' book, as Petunia called them. Petunia did not bother to do any studying, and she only did the least she could get away with if there was an essay for homework. If she had a test, she did not study much. It wasn't worth talking about her effort to do any homework for her English and French classes and so on. She was very lazy.

Lily loved school. She loved studying and practising and so on. Petunia thought Lily was a 'nerd,' but Lily was far too used to Petunia's insults to care about them. Lily knew that Petunia was just jealous about her grades. When Lily was younger, Petunia had told her that she was not jealous at all, but now that she was older and could recognize her sister's behaviour better, Lily more and more understood that it was a big, fat lie.

'What are you thinking about, Lily?' her mother asked her.

Leaving her private thoughts about her sister, Lily said, 'The owl flying over there.' She pointed up in the air and saw a handsome tawny owl. It flew down, landed gracefully on Lily's chair and stretched out a leg to her. The second letter that month was attached to it.

'Oh, here comes the book list at last!' Lily said happily as she freed the letter from the bird's outstretched leg. The owl immediately flew away. Lily opened the letter and found what she had been expecting: the Hogwarts' booklist.

_Spells: How to Perform Them and How to Stop Them_ by Rupert Axebanger  
_Advanced Transfiguration_ by Agatha Robinson  
_The Stars_ by Anthony Friddles  
_Runes_ by Runa Aldrad  
_Muggles' Lives and Ways_ by Rohan McDaw  
_Effective Defence_ by Kevin Knorr  
_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7_ by Miranda Goshawk.

When are we going to Diagon Alley?' Lily's mother asked.

'Dunno,' said Lily. 'Whenever you want.'

'OK, let's say … tomorrow? And we've got to buy some Owl Treats for your owl.'

* * *

**Author's Notes;** This is bound to be the longest chapter I've ever written. It's 3319 words **without** this Author's Notes. Applauses to me thanks!  
Lily's quote from Dumbledore, 'fear for a name increases fear of the thing itself,' is one of my favourites in 'Philosopher's Stone'. I also agree with what Mr Evans said in the beginning about the word 'normal'. 

When typing this into my computer, I want to say that Petunia over-reacted a lot in this chapter, but I enjoyed writing it … :)

And, at last. Anywone curious about updates, planned updates etcetera can look at my 'writing blog', where I am trying to fetch all readers on different archieves/sites where I am linking to my stories to a kind of 'central'. That is very good, at my Swedish story, I only had readers at a Harry Potter fan site and two at Fanfiction-net. Now, I do not know how many I have, but anyway, I have the story published at a few places, so that is almost needed. The blog is located on awnswritings DOT blogspot DOT com. And, (this is to you who's reading att if you are a registred member), please do write a line in a review (it can be so simple as 'The story is god/bad,' only you are reviewing) so I know how many readers I have . Thanks! (Unregistred can simply email me at axel DOT nyden AT gmail DOT com. Like as with the URL to my blog, you replace dot with a dot and at with an (at).


	3. II: Violent Shopping

**_IMPORTANT! READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTES BELOW!_**

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun. I own the story.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Additional warnings:** Slash, eventual language, eventual violence.  
**Author's Note: **This is something I want to make very clear. This story is an Alternative Universe one. Alternative Universe (also called Alternate Universe) means that some things in the story are out of the canon – they differ from the book/film or whatever the fanfiction is based upon. Anyone who wants to read more about it can read it at en –DOT– wikipedia –DOT– com. Replace the '–DOT–' with a real dot.  
When I planned the story, I made a major mistake in the time line, but the mistake is actually important to my story. The AU (AU is the abbreviation for Alternative Universe) is that I have placed Lily in the year after the Marauders. I _know_ she is as old as the Marauders, which is confirmed in _Chapter 28 – Snape's worst memory_ in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. So, please do not remind me. And, blame yourself if I just spoiled the fifth book for you – but I made clear in the notes over the Prologue that this story will contain spoilers for **all** six Harry Potter novels.  
That said, I hope you enjoy the story.  
**Word Count: **At all, at least 63,500 words. Impossible to say as it is not finished. This part is 3,464 words.

* * *

**Chapter Two  
**_Violent Shopping  
_

Lily smiled as she left her room, and started moving toward the bathroom. Tomorrow, she would go to Diagon Alley. And it was not just the exciting trip to Flourish and Blotts that interested her – Her mum had promised her an owl as a reward for her good O.W.Ls. Her mother seemed to be very happy and pleased with Lily's results; they seemed like a gift from heaven since Petunia was not very good in school. Lily opened the door and stepped in. She brushed her teeth and took a quick shower before walking down to breakfast. When she got there, she saw that Petunia was not in the kitchen. Lily was glad to be rid of Petunia.

'Good morning!' said Lily.

'Morning.' Her mother smiled at her. 'We've decided to go to Diagon Alley today instead of tomorrow, if that is OK with you. What time should we leave?'

'You're very keen on giving me an owl, aren't you? I thought we weren't going until tomorrow, but today is even better!' Lily laughed. 'Well, how about … a little while after breakfast? I have to get my booklist and so on first.'

'OK, then it's decided. We're going to Diagon Alley an hour after breakfast. That will give us time to get ready and Lily can make a shopping list. That should be enough time, shouldn't it?' asked Lily's father. Lily and her mum nodded.

Half an hour later, Lily sat down in the kitchen, waiting for her parents to get ready. Lily had been ready for the past fifteen minutes. The only thing Lily had had to do was to get her booklist, and that had not taken much time. In fact, it had taken three minutes. Lily did not like waiting. That was one of her least favourite things to do. She looked at her watch again. _Only one single minute has passed since I last looked at the time_, she thought. She made a grimace. _Oh, this is going to be a long half hour …_

Lily must have fallen asleep, since the second half hour did not seem as long as the first one. When Lily's mother and father finally came downstairs, Lily quickly stood up and greeted her parents.

'Hi, sweetheart,' her father said. 'Shall we go now?'

'Sure!'

- - - - -

An hour later, Lily and her parents found themselves in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Lily didn't like riding in a car very much because she developed a headache if she travelled too long in a car. She sighed and tried to think of something else, but it was impossible. So when they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, Lily and her parents sat down and ordered some Butterbeer. Lily's parents had not tasted it before, but they liked it.

Fifteen minutes after they had ordered their Butterbeer, they stepped out through the door opposite the one they had gone in earlier that day. When they were outside, Lily took out her wand and tapped some of the bricks. An entrance suddenly began to form in the brick wall. It started as a little hole, and seconds later, it was an archway, big enough even for Hagrid, the enormous Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, to enter. Actually, Hagrid was not a giant. Lily had found out in her first year that he was a half giant. Hagrid had not told anybody else the truth, and so, Lily had not either.

They had now entered Diagon Alley. The alley was crowded with people – many were Hogwarts students Lily only knew from their faces. In fact, the only real friend she had inside and outside Hogwarts was Remus Lupin.

'Where shall we go first?' asked Lily's mother. She loved shopping, especially for clothes. Lily was not very interested in clothes, which gave Petunia a reason to think that Lily was a 'jerk'. Lily snorted at that.

'Hm … First we must go to Madam Malkin's. I think my robes are a little too short. Yeah, Madam Malkin's first. But before that, we have to go to Gringotts to change money, you know.'

'That's the great marble building over there in the middle of the alley, isn't it, sweetheart?' her father asked.

'Yes, Dad, it is.' Lily smiled as they entered the bank and started going toward one of the goblins behind the counter. The whole hall was made of marble and it was lit by candles. The hall was very big. Lily thought it was a beautiful place, and it was exciting to be in there. Lily did not know why, but it was quite thrilling. When they came to the desk, the goblin asked, 'Good day. What can I help you with?'

'Well,' Lily's father began, 'we would like to change money … Our daughter, Lily, will attend her sixth year at Hogwarts this September, and my wife and I—we're Muggles—would like to change from English pounds to … What d'you call them now? Ah, yes, I remember. It sounds like _gay lions_!'

'Galleons, sir. How much would you like to change?'

'Well … Lily, how much do you think we'll need?'

'Hm … About … fifty Galleons should be enough to buy clothes and books and leave me some money for school, trips to Hogsmeade and so on.'

'Well, fifty Galleons is about fifty pounds; Galleons are an even exchange with British pounds right now.'

'Yes, that's right, I suppose,' said Lily. The goblin nodded as Lily's father took out his wallet and opened it up. He took out a fifty-pound note and handed it to the goblin, who started counting out fifty golden coins.

'Very well, sir,' he finally said some moments later. 'Fifty Galleons. Here you are.' He handed the money to Lily's father, who nodded at its receipt and then made his way out of the bank.

Lily smiled and thought about the day she visited Diagon Alley for the first time. She remembered it well … In her Hogwarts letter, they had included an extra sheet of parchment explaining all about magic and so on. Lily assumed that all of the Muggle-borns had received the same information sheet because the headline was 'INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL FUTURE STUDENTS WITH NON-MAGICAL PARENTS.'

On that extra sheet there was information about where they could buy all the things on the list, a map of Diagon Alley and a little information about Hogwarts. At the end, there was a note stating that _some_, not _all_, wizards thought that Muggle-born witches and wizards were not as good as wizard-born ones, but that it was _not_ true. It also mentioned that some wizards liked bullying Muggle-borns. Lily snorted. _Well, well, after five years, I certainly know that. Almost the whole Slytherin house, including **Snivellus** Snape, bullies Muggle-borns._ Lily had actually protected him once in her fourth year – a thing that she really regretted since Snivellus had called her a 'Mudblood'. After that, Lily did not protect him again.

'Lily, what are you waiting for?' asked Lily's mother. She and her husband were already standing by the heavy gates of Gringotts, waiting for their daughter to come.

'Oh, sorry!' said Lily. 'I lost myself in memories; I forgot what I was doing. I suppose I think way too much. I'm like a professor. I've got a great long-term memory, but my short-term memory is awful, you know.'

'Yes, we are aware of that,' her mother laughed. 'Maybe you'll be a professor when you've grown up. We ARE going to visit the clothing shop first, aren't we?'

'Yes, mother. That is the most boring stop, so let's go there first.'

'What are you saying?' her mother asked Lily in shock. 'You think clothing shops are boring? How can you seriously think that?'

-----

The clothing shop visit was soon over. Lily's mother and Madam Malkin had talked a lot about clothes. Lily could not understand their fascination, and she thought it was very unnecessary. She strongly suspected her father thought so, too. Lily just did not understand it at all. She sighed.

'Where are we going now, sweetheart?' asked Lily's father. 'Do you need … Hm … Something from the Apothecary?'

'Well … I could use some Potions ingredients.'

'OK,' her father simply said, 'so then let's go to the Apothecary.'

They walked across Diagon Alley and entered Slug & Jiggers Apothecary. It was a little shop which smelled of many different things that Lily preferred not to think about. She was not very fond of this shop.

'What can I help you with?' An old witch came from the desk towards them.

'Well,' Lily started, 'I am going to begin my sixth year at Hogwarts this September.'

'Sixth-year Potions! Wait a moment and I will prepare an ingredient supply for you!'

'Thank you very much!' said Lily. When the Apothecary witch had completed the order, Lily turned to her parents. 'OK, we are through with the Apothecary. What are we going to do now?'

'Well, we don't know what you need.'

'OK … I think just Flourish and Blotts is left. The bookshop,' she added. 'Right down the street and next to Madam Malkin's. There are plenty of books and more books. Anything you can dream of and a little more. I love the place –'

'Well, that was unexpected.'

'– and there are so many books that I doubt anybody can count them. I love it there.'

'You're very eager to visit the book shop, aren't you?' asked Lily's mother. 'Do you really think it's that interesting? Well, I suppose you must thin so since you are reading your third-year school books "just for fun". It's strange, actually, that you read your school books during the summer holidays, and your sister barely touches them during the school terms. It's like everything else. You and Petunia are like night and day. You love school. She hates it. You are nice to almost everybody and she isn't. How is that possible?' Lily's mother looked at her husband in confusion.

'I really don't know,' her father said. 'Maybe our bright, red-haired daughter can answer that question?'

'Well, I don't know, but something I do know is what is going to happen if I tell Petunia about this –'

'Oh, please don't,' her mother sighed. 'She will be angry. Well, don't say that to Petunia and if you do, she'll kill you,' her mother said. And with those words, they went inside the shop.

Flourish and Blotts was, as usual, crowded with Hogwarts students buying school books for the approaching year. Lily made her way to an old woman working in the shop. The woman was short and wore long, red robes. Lily moved towards the witch and asked, 'Could you help me, please?'

'Well, that's why I'm here, you know, Miss. What can I help you with?'

'Hmm … I could use _Spells: How to Do Them and How to Stop Them_ by Rupert Axebanger, _Advanced Transfiguration_ by Agatha Robinson, _The Stars_ by Anthony Friddles, _Runes_ by Runa Aldrad, _Muggles' Lives and Ways_ by Rohan McDaw, _Effective Defence_ by Kevin Knorr, _The Standard Book of Spells_ by Miranda Goshawk, and finally, _Advanced Potion-Making_ by Libatius Borage, please.'

'Er … Could you please say the titles slowly, one by one, as we go after them? I don't remember a word of what you just said.' The witch smiled. 'I've got a very bad short-term memory.'

'Me, too,' said Lily. 'Well … Hmm … Where did I put the list? Here. Well … I need _Spells:_ _How to Do Them and How to Stop Them_ by Rupert Axebanger.'

'Right. Charms section then. C'mon!' She went to a wall and Lily and her parents followed her. '_Spells. _Here you are. What else do you need?'

'Er … _Advanced Transfiguration_ by Agatha Robinson.'

'So you're taking Transfiguration, too? That's a hard subject, and Professor McGonagall can be very … severe, can't she?'

'Well, she can be very hard when she wants to be. And that's almost all the time. But she does not usually get angry with me, though. I'm happy about that.'

'Well, you should be. So, let's go get the book. _Advanced Transfiguration,_ wasn't it? Yes. Well … It's over there somewhere.' The witch moved to a different wall. Lily and her parents followed. A moment later, the witch said, 'So, now, where is it? Oh, here it is.' She pulled out a book. '_Advanced Transfiguration_ by Agatha Robinson. Nice book. You're taking the sixth year, I suppose? That's a good year.'

'Yes, I am. Why is the sixth year a good one? Do you think it is because it comes between the O.W.Ls and the N.E.W.Ts? Because the sixth year should be considered a year to prepare for the N.E.W.Ts, if you ask me …'

'Our daughter has always done well in school,' Lily's mother smiled. 'She came home with ten Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations this summer.'

'But that's great,' said the old witch, making Lily blush.

'Our daughter is a witch, but we're Muggles,' Lily's father declared. 'It's strange; I can't imagine what sort of grades the children with magical parents got. They must've got all Outstandings, I suppose, since there are parents at home that can help them with homework, and so on. We can't, you know, and still, Lily's got almost all O's.'

'Oh, no,' said the witch. 'Many people think like that, especially the parents of the Muggle- borns. Strangely enough, the Muggle-borns often do the best. I don't know why; I suppose nobody does. It's very odd.'

'Yes, it is. But our Lily must be one of the best students then? That would feel nice, wouldn't it?' Lily's mother asked her husband.

'Yes … But how could that be? How can students that are supposed to know almost everything about magic be "poorer" than people that don't know anything about it in the beginning? That sounds very strange if you ask me …' All four fell silent in their own thoughts.

_Well, there you see_, Lily thought. _Now, you know that 'pure-blood' wizards are getting 'poorer' grades than Muggle-borns. Maybe ten Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations is pretty good … But no. Many Muggle-borns have surely got better grades than you, Lily Marion Evans. But no. Some Muggle-borns might have got higher grades than you have. Yes. So … But those grades were good, even for Muggle-borns … STOP! _Lily did not dare think any longer. She tried to think about something else, and warily looked at the piece of parchment in her hand. _Oh, yes, we must have forgotten! _She cleared her throat; 'Hrm, hrm!' The three adults looked up. 'Well, we _should_ go on with the list, shouldn't we?'

'Well, you're right; we really should go on with the books. Other people wanting my help must be waiting right now,' the witch said. 'What is the next book on your list, Lily?'

'Oh, right. The next book is named _The Stars_ and it's written by Anthony Friddles … Funny name, Friddles,' Lily laughed. 'Anyway, that's the book.'

'_The Stars_,' the witch said. 'In the Astronomy section; come on!' The witch was a little strange in Lily's opinion. But she, Lily, could not explain what exactly was strange about the witch, who now handed Lily a blue book with the inscription _The Stars_, smiling. 'So, what's next?'

'Er …' Lily looked on her list. '_Runes_ by Runa Aldrad,' she read out loud.

'Ancient Runes—that's interesting,' the witch said as they went to the _Runes_ section. 'Took it myself at Hogwarts.'

'Yes, it's my favourite subject. It's hard, but still interesting.'

'I agree; it was my favourite, too,' the witch said. 'But now, let's focus on the books. "What's after _Runes_?'

'_Muggles' Lives and Ways_ by Rohan McDaw.'

'But, didn't you say you're Muggles?' the witch asked Lily's parents.

'Yes, they are,' said Lily, 'but I'm taking Muggle Studies, though, to see it from the wizard community's point of view.'

'Yes, that might be interesting; I agree with you –'

'Hey, Evans!'

-----

Sirius Black heard James Potter yell 'Hey, Evans!' and saw him walking over toward Lily Evans. Lily was two years younger than he and James, who was born in the late autumn or early winter of 1959. Sirius knew that Lily Evans was born in 1960 or 1961 since she was in the year below them at Hogwarts. Lily was a beautiful, red-haired witch and was, according to Remus, best in her class, even if she did not talk about it. It was just like Remus; he was the best student in the Marauders' year, but he did not talk much about it. Lily and Remus were close friends, Sirius knew. When Remus got tired of the Marauders' mischief, he quite often went to see Lily … . Sirius returned to reality when he heard James repeat 'Hey, Evans!'

Sirius knew James had been in love with Lily since the trip on the Hogwarts Express taking them to their second year at school. James had looked at Lily in a very strange way, the way Sirius had looked when he first realised ….

'Yes, Potter?' Lily had turned around, staring at James while her parents and some old witch that Sirius suspected was working at the shop looked on.

'What are you doing here?' asked James rudely.

'I'm shopping. Do you need a crystal ball to figure out that I'm here shopping? Because then you are in the wrong shop; I don't see any crystal balls in here.'

'Oh, Evans! Do you _see_ anything?'

'OK, OK, _quiet_!' Remus spoke for the first time. 'Please, don't fight! You're the only friends I've got.'

'Sorry, Moony,' said James. 'It must be hard when you have only two kinds of friends and both are arguing with each other in front of you…' James looked slightly apologetic. Looking for a way to recover from his embarrassment, he added, 'I'm bored. Let's go.'

'You always are,' Sirius smirked. 'Why don't we pay for the books and go to Quality Quidditch Supplies? That'll be interesting, won't it, Prongs?'

'Yeah, let's go,' said James happily. 'Coming, Remus?'

'No, I'll stay here with a friend of mine,' he smiled. 'I don't actually understand Quidditch, brooms and all that stuff. But you can go; I suppose Lily and I can entertain ourselves well enough in here. What do you think, Lily?'

'Yes, I think we can.' Lily was distracted as the bell on the shop door signalled that someone had just entered.

'Who is this beautiful young lady?' What Lily suspected were James' parents had just entered the book shop.

'Oh,' said Lily, 'I'm Lily Evans-'

'Oh, Lily Evans … We've heard of you –'

'Shut up, Dad!' said James angrily. Lily and Remus giggled.

'Well, d'you have your books?'

'Yes,' James answered.

'Good,' said James' father. 'Then your mother and I will go to the Leaky Cauldron. Will you meet us there when you're finished in the shops, boys?'

'Yes, we'll meet you there,' Sirius said as he answered instead of James. After nodding their good-byes, James' parents made their way out of the shop.

Looking for a way to continue his conversation with Lily, Remus asked, 'Have you read anything interesting over the summer, Lily? I've been reading a lot of books, most of them old school books. Preparing for the N.E.W.Ts, you know.'

'Oh! Me, too! I've read some of my old school books about –'

'Wait,' Lily's father interrupted. 'You're in the year above Lily, aren't you?'

Remus nodded.

'C'mon, let's go,' James whispered in Sirius' and Peter's ears. They stepped out of the book shop and then walked down the street to their very favourite shop.

Entering the shop, Sirius noticed another student. 'Oh, great,' said Sirius. '**_Snivellus_**.'

'Hey, Snivellus,' said James. 'You haven't showered today either, I see.'

'**Shut up!**' Snape made threatening motion by making a fist and punching his other hand. _Oh no,_ Sirius thought.

-----

Thirty minutes later, James, Sirius and Peter went to the Leaky Cauldron, discouraged, and, in James' case, bleeding. As they opened the door, Mrs Evans said, '**Oh, my God**! What has happened to you?'

'Long story,' said James as he threw himself into an empty chair. Blood still dripped from his chin.

'James, sweetheart, what happened?' asked James' mother anxiously.

'Nothing.'

'Sirius, what happened?'

'Snape.'

'Oh.' The families Black, Potter and Snape had been sent several owls about their sons'

fights.

'What did you do to him?'

James did not answer, so Sirius said, 'James said, "Hi Snivellus! You haven't showered today, either, I see." Then, Snape punched James in the face.'

'Oh, **James**!' Mrs. Potter sighed.

* * *

**Author Notes: **Don't think that every chapter will be longer that the first one, because it will not be so, OK? And I know I forgot the owl and the Potions book … Let's say she did now, when the chapter has ended … And thanks to Celi, who helped me with a little detail!  
And I really think I should explain a sentence in the last chapter which caused confusion: '_Lily had a vague memory of the eldest boy; he had been in Ravenclaw a year below her. If Lily remembered correctly, the girl was blonde and quite tall like Petunia. When she first met her, Lily had decided that she did not like her, only because of the girl's looks … How mean and judging can you be?_' – Lily remembered the boy vaguely. His sister was blonde. Maybe I did not explain so well – actually I think it is rather dull now while thinking about it. 


	4. III: Holiday Concerns

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun. I own the story.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Additional warnings:** Slash, eventual language, eventual violence.  
**Author's Note: **From now and on, Chapter Two is called 'Violent Shopping' instead of 'The Last, or the Second to Last, Chool-Book Shopping Tour.'  
**Word Count: **At all, at least 63,500 words. Impossible to say as it is not finished. This part is 3,121 words.**  
**

* * *

**Chapter Three  
**_Holiday Concerns_

Sirius, Peter, Remus, James and James' parents formed a small queue in front of the fire at the Leaky Cauldron, waiting to Floo themselves home to James' house. They – Remus, Peter and Sirius – had decided to spend the remaining days of the summer holidays there; the four friends would be together … Sirius was especially happy to spend the end of the summer holidays with some company, and not just any company – his three best and only friends.

'So, who's first? James? Fine.' James took a handful of Floo powder, stepped into the fire, cleared his throat, and said, 'Godric's Hollow!' as he opened his clenched fist and let the powder inside slowly float down, colouring the flames emerald green. The flames took James body, and he disappeared.

Remus was now first in the short queue. He stepped in, and repeated what James had just done. He, too, vanished.

Sirius now stepped in. He took a fistful of Floo powder, stepped inside, cleared his throat again and finally said, 'Godric's Hollow' very clearly. He suddenly felt himself rotate slightly and he squeezed his elbows against his midriff. He spun faster and faster, and saw glimpses of different fireplaces. He continued to spin until he saw the kitchen of James' parents' house in Godric's Hollow. Remus and James were sitting at the kitchen table.

'Hello, Padfoot,' James greeted. 'The Floo isn't the best way to travel, is it? At least I don't think it is …'

'Neither do I,' said Remus quietly as he shuddered. 'Remember the first time I used the Floo? Didn't press my elbows to my body, you know. Ouch. It hurt. A lot.'

They all laughed as Peter stumbled out of the fireplace and ended up in a big heap. 'Laughing at me?' he asked, wounded.

'No,' Remus began, panicked, 'absolutely not! We were laughing about the first time I travelled by Floo. I am sorry if you thought we were laughing at you!'

'What happened?' asked Peter quietly.

'I forgot to press my elbows against my waist,' laughed Remus. Peter laughed anxiously. 'Well, I do that, too. Almost always. I'm a bit absent minded, you know. I forget almost everything.'

'We're aware of that. You always forget names, homework, times for lessons –'

'Oh, James,' Remus sighed. 'You and Sirius don't remember homework, tests or times either; _I_ remember them for you all. It's very lucky you've got me –'

'Yeah, who else could we copy off of?' Sirius joked. 'No, mate,' he said a little later. 'We don't copy from you … Well, only if you don't help us.'

'Yes, mate,' said James, 'thanks to you, we didn't fail all of our O.W.L.s – just two of them.'

'James, that's not "just"!' James' mother had just stepped out of the fireplace.

'Of course it is! It could've been worse!'

'Well, you've got a point there … It's a wonder you did fail in "just" two classes. Thank you, Remus,' said James' father. 'James, I hope you'll get better grades in your N.E.W.T.s,' he added, 'but I don't believe that you will since you said that you "revised very well" for the O.W.L.s.'

Remus snorted.

_Oh, for God's sake, Remus! We **did** revise well for the O.W.L.s …Or, at least, better than we normally do._ Sirius rolled his eyes up toward heaven. Remus had always loved revising.

Sirius was worried about Remus, and slightly suspected that he, Remus, had a serious form of performance anxiety, but Remus did not agree. Remus had told them he was just a very nervous person, and indeed he was. But he did suffer from performance anxiety, and it did not matter how much he denied it. Sirius was worried about his best friend … More than James and Peter, he thought; it was bound to be like that in Sirius' condition …

'**Sirius**!'

'What?'

'We've been trying to speak to you for the last five minutes, and you haven't answered!'

'Oh, sorry! Lost myself in my own thoughts. What did you say, Prongs?'

'Moony, Wormtail and I are going to go to the beach soon. Will you join us?'

'Of course; I came here to spend time with you.'

- - - - -

Sirius sat on the beach, looking at his three friends. He did not join them in the water. Sirius was always cold; he preferred the sun instead of the water. They were on the beach of a lake not far from James' house. The lake was called 'Godric's Bath'. Everything in the village seemed to be named after the mysterious Godric. Sirius had always been nonplussed when it came to the name Godric in Godric's Hollow. He assumed that the founder of the village was named Godric, and he had often thought that the founder of Gryffindor House had to have been the same Godric who had built the village.

The entire Potter family had been Gryffindors as long as anybody could remember. Sirius had been told as a child that that Potters and Blacks were two well-known 'pure blood' families. He had not mentioned that to Remus, though. Nor had he told his parents about Remus. He knew that a werewolf friend in the family would not be popular. Sirius snorted at the 'fact' that werewolves were 'half-bloods' … It was more likely that his family did not like the werewolves on Dumbledore's side since there was some werewolves in Voldemort's army, and his parents seemed to like them.

Lord Voldemort was the biggest source of fear and threats in the United Kingdom's wizarding community these days. Once or twice and sometimes thrice a week, Sirius read in the _Daily Prophet_, or, more correctly, Remus read in the paper about attacks and passed his summary of the information to the others, who did not read the paper very often. The others didn't have the energy to read the whole paper, so Remus did. He enjoyed all kinds of reading, so he read the paper from the front page to the last. That was one of the things Sirius liked about him …

Today, according to Remus, a squib female had been brutally murdered by an unknown Death Eater. Sirius was so interested that he had read the article over Remus' shoulder. It had been a middle-aged Squib female and her Muggle husband and children that had been brutally killed.

The Squib (the _Daily Prophet_ did not mention any name) had not had any connection with the wizarding world since her father had died six years ago. Sirius thought it must have been horrible for her; she had not seen a wizard in nearly six years, and then, a servant of the most evil wizard in the United Kingdom suddenly appeared in her home, killing her, her husband and their children … Sirius shivered. It must have felt awful. Sirius could not understand how his parents and the bigger part of his family thought that Voldemort and his Death Eaters' doings were good, and that 'half-bloods', 'Mudbloods' and Muggles were worthless. Sirius did not.

Remus' friend, Lily, was Muggle-born, and Remus was a werewolf. Remus had been a werewolf for nearly twelve years now. Sirius did not know when in 1965 Remus had been attacked, but he assumed it had happened during the spring or summer, or maybe early autumn. Sirius assumed that it had not happened during the winter, though. He could not believe that a five-year-old would be allowed to stroll about in the middle of the winter. Sirius assumed that Remus had been alone, or with another child; no adult would be so irresponsible as to not intervene if a werewolf was attacking his child – especially not with an impending war …

Sirius sighed and looked at his three friends in the water. Sirius did not quite understand how his friends could enjoy swimming in that freezing water. You only got cold, according to Sirius, who mostly basked in the sunshine.

'Food!' Sirius heard Mrs Potter's voice, and the three boys in the water ran up to the house in their towels, drying themselves, arriving before Sirius had even got to his feet. He took his towel and followed his friends.

- - - - -

'The dinner was delicious, Mrs Potter,' said Remus, who looked tired after his third helping of pork chops and potatoes. Sirius had just finished eating; James looked as if he had eaten way too much. Peter, though, was still scarfing up the food. _That person could easily eat himself to death, _thought Sirius. _It's a miracle he hasn't blown up yet; he crams so much food into himself. Oh, yes, poor boy …_

'Sirius!'

'What, Remus?'

'I've tried talking to you for nearly two minutes. What's wrong with you?' said Peter. 'You've been out of it almost all day … Are you alright?'

'Fine … Well, I've got a little headache. What did you say?'

'Could you please pass me the sauce?'

'Oh, sure!' said Sirius, and he did so.

'Hurry up, Peter,' Mrs Potter smiled. 'It's almost time for pudding, and you don't want to miss that, do you? If you have not changed since last summer, it would be a sacrilege for you to not want pudding.'

'Oh, great,' said Peter, who had just swallowed a big chunk of meat. 'Good!' Sirius did not know anybody who was as gluttonous as Peter.

'It's wonderful that you love my food so much,' said James' mother happily. Peter nodded. Sirius did not have the heart to tell her that it was not that Peter loved her food especially. Peter would eat anything! But Sirius kept quiet, knowing that she would be pleased with the thought that Peter loved her food the best.

'Finished!' Peter stroked his belly. He almost lay on his chair.

'Good. Time for pudding,' said Mrs Potter. 'I need to take care of the finishing touches first, so you boys can go out and walk or something. And I think it would be good if you, Peter, walked a little so your stomach starts to work. Otherwise, you might be sick, and we don't want that, do we?'

- - - - -

The 'walk' was to Godric's bath again. Sirius sighed; his friends wanted him to swim with them, so Sirius kindly stepped into the cold water. The other three immediately started to splash him.

'OK, if you've taken me out here just to splash me, I'm going back to the beach, because I don't want to be splattered on.'

'Sorry, Padfoot,' said James. 'We'll stop, won't we? Since we've forced him into this "cold" water, we should be nice to him, and not tease him. It's a big sacrifice for him to come into this "cold" water.'

'You're right,' said Remus. 'Sirius, when you don't want to bathe anymore, tell us. It's not fun to bathe if you don't enjoy it, you know. And it's not fun for us either, if you're sacrificing yourself for our sake.'

'Ok … I'm going to get out now. I'm really freezing, you know.'

'I'll accompany you,' said Remus, 'I'm starting to shiver … James and Peter can entertain themselves, I'm pretty sure … Can't you?'

'Of course we can, can't we, Wormtail? We can … Hmm … We can do whatever you want.'

'OK,' said Peter as Remus and Sirius got out of the freezing water. Sirius took his towel and returned to reading the _Daily Prophet_. During the summer, he actually read the paper often.

'I'm glad to see that you're finally reading the papers,' Remus smiled. 'Then, I'm only reading for three: James, Peter and myself.'

'Mhm …'

'Oh, I won't disturb you since you're reading the paper.'

'Nah, I want to talk to somebody, and the paper can wait.'

'Uhm … What is it that you're so eager to talk about?' laughed Remus. 'That you don't seem to really know what you're talking about?'

'I don't know; I'm just longing for company or something. Got tired of the papers.'

'Hm … Can I choose a subject to talk about, then?'

'Feel free!'

'OK … Maybe we can discuss revising for the N.E.W.T.s.'

'Sure. I'm taking … Uhm … Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Charms, Muggle Studies and Transfiguration.'

'OK … That's seven classes. Myself, I'm taking all the ones you are taking and Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Which subject do you think you'll need to practise the most on?'

'Remus – no offence, but I don't think I want to think about it right now; can we do it at school?'

'Right … What else do you want to talk about? It's your turn to figure out a topic now.' Sirius did not have to think much because James and Peter appeared.

'Oy, Moony and Padfoot! I think it has been half an hour since we came down here. Shall we go home and see if the pudding is ready?'

- - - - -

Sirius lay in James' room in a camp bed. Three such beds had been placed there during the day, making it possible for the Marauders to sleep under the same ceiling, have some privacy and have a place to consider possible mischief. Sirius smiled; James' parents knew their son and his old friends.

The room was totally dark. Totally. The only things he could see were the silhouettes of his friends, their beds, and the rest of the furniture of the room. It was quiet – one could hear if a little Knut fell on the floor.

Sirius liked the quiet darkness, and he had always done so. The fact that the rest of the house was asleep made Sirius fairly happy since there was nobody to interrupt his thoughts. He thought about his 'home', or the place Sirius had been forced to call his 'home' for about sixteen years. He had left it – escaped it in his opinion – about twenty-four months ago. Sirius did not regret leaving at all. If anything, he was very pleased with himself for making that decision. The Black family was not exactly well-known for welcoming Muggle-borns and others whose lineage was not 'pure'. Sirius' parents were not Death Eaters, yet they did unofficially support Voldemort.

As a little child Sirius was told that wizards with one magical parent and one non-magical parent were 'half-bloods.' 'Mudbloods', or Muggle-born wizards, were not worth anything at all. Sirius had always snorted at this belief. He did not think that wizards should be labelled like horses.

He snorted, but hastily covered the lower part of his face so as not to wake up the others in the room. His 'family' did not like werewolves either, just like the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself hated them if the werewolves in question were not on their side. If a werewolf was on their side, like Fenrir Greyback and most of the other werewolves, they were accepted by Lord Voldemort's followers – maybe not like equals, but still accepted. But if a werewolf happened to be on the 'good side', he was considered to be vastly inferior. Sirius thought that this summed up the Death Eaters in a nutshell. _Voldemort considers them beneath his notice if they're not on his side,_ he thought. Consequently, they did not like werewolves like Remus.

_Remus_. Sirius had thought a lot about this special boy for a while. Actually, he had thought about him for the entire summer so far – a little more than a month. He could not stop thinking about him. Sirius Black was in love – in love with Remus Lupin.

- - - - -

'Morning, Sirius!'

'Mmm?' Sirius groggily woke up. 'Oh, morning. Had a bad night; I couldn't sleep.'

'That's a shame,' said Remus. 'Should we go downstairs to the kitchen now? James and Peter are waiting. Peter's starving, according to him. He says that he suspects he will soon die from hunger because he doesn't get enough food.'

'Isn't he always hungry?' asked Sirius very quietly. Remus smirked. He and the others had already dressed. 'What time is it?' Sirius looked in confusion at Remus.

'Half past eight!' said Peter. 'When are we going to go down to breakfast? I'm starving!'

'Why don't you, James and Remus go down to breakfast now, and I'll come when I've dressed. Does that sound OK?'

'We'll see you there, then,' said Remus. 'But do not dare go back to sleep!' he added to Sirius. Sirius rolled his eyes while the others went down to breakfast. He finally rolled out of bed, and got dressed quickly. Five minutes later, he appeared in the kitchen and was immediately greeted by Mrs Potter. 'Good Morning!'

- - - - -

August went on. Not a single cloud had been seen in the sky during the whole month. The weather was as perfect as it was in July, and the sky was amazingly blue. There was barely any humidity and the sun shone almost all the time. The Marauders were outdoors more than indoors.

James' parents never accompanied them to Godric's bath. Instead, they stayed up in the garden, sunbathing, while their son and his friends were at the beach. When the Marauders stayed in the garden, Mr and Mrs Potter went down to the beach. Sirius now read the _Daily Prophet_ every day, and he planned to continue at school, borrowing Remus' copies after Remus had read them. It felt good to try to be at the same level Remus was on, but it was a heavy task.

- - - - -

The end of August appeared far too fast. The first of September meant that they would all go to King's Cross Station in London and get on the Hogwarts Express, the train that would take them to their last year at Hogwarts. Sirius would only twice again sit in one of its compartments, joke with his friends, and buy sweets from the witch with the trolley. Then, after a ride in the horse-less carriages, he would watch the final Sorting Banquet. Everyone would eat, listen to Dumbledore's speech, and then he and the Marauders would join their House, go to the Gryffindor Tower, get the password, and then, go to bed. Even though the time at the Potter home was very nice, Sirius could not stop himself from daydreaming about Hogwarts.

At the end of August, there was a full moon. The Marauders now explored an unknown, at least to them, side street of Hogsmeade where they found some abandoned shops. The shop names were written in old English and among the shops they found 'Madam Rouge's Expensive Necklaces' and 'Monsieur Braveur's Weapon Store'.

* * *

**Author's Notes; **I _told_ you that the chapters are not going to be longer and longer for every chapter, and here you have the proof. If Sirius' sexual orientation in this story is bothering you, no one is forcing you to read more in the story. _And_ – I did warn you over the Prologue. Ass a friend of mine said once – 'It is just foolish to expect something of Axel!'  
And yes, you should expect gaps between the chapters. The next gap will not be five months I hope but you need to remain patient. I have as goal to make the drafts finished by the end of this year, 2007, but the story in 2008. 


	5. IV: The Second to Last Journey There

**Disclaimer; **Harry Potter, all places and characters (except those I have made up), the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun.

_**Attention! Warning! Alert!**_ **Readers might want to read Chapter 3 before this chapter. **The alert servers of FanfictionDOTnet were down a period last year (2007) – during the time Chapter Three was published. So, **make sure you have read the chapter in question** before this one – for obvious reasons!

**Beta Reader's Note:** My apologies to awn and to all of his readers. I have had this chapter for a very long time, but went through a long bout of glandular fever (mono) and then had a computer crash. It took a long time to find the corrected version of his story, but happily I have a new computer--and even better--awn's Chapter 4 is ready for publication. Enjoy!

**Author's Notes:** IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTES BELOW THE CHAPTER! Please do read!  
Read, as well, the Beta's note ahead! And I wish to agree with what my Beta said, there has been both real life and computer issues. Still, I hope you will enjoy the story – still after nearly fifteen months!

* * *

**Chapter Four**

_The Second to Last Journey There_

Lily awoke in the sunrise on the first day of that month, September, in the year 1977. It was a beautiful morning, and the sun sent out bright light which flooded through her square shaped window, making reflections of the sun dancing over the walls of her room. She watched them for a moment, during which the sun slowly rose outside Lily's windows. Some minutes later, Lily decided she could not fall asleep again, so she got up out of her bed and walked toward the bathroom.

After doing what she had needed to do, Lily crossed the hall again and seconds later, she stepped over the threshold of her room. She looked at the alarm clock next to her bed; the little hand pointed at the number between a four and a six. It was five o'clock in the morning. Lily sighed; she was probably the only one awake. As she had already packed her things in case she overslept, she had no book to relieve her boredom. And there was no point in borrowing a book from Petunia –or rather, taking it without permission. That was not a very good idea, since Petunia now was very angry with Lily. They had had more fights like the one by the breakfast table the day Lily's O.W.L grades arrived. That fight had only been the first one.

_Well_, Lily thought, _I hope she will stir soon … Or at least that I will be able to do so. _She sighed; Petunia was not the easiest person to have as a sister. Actually, after a tantrum which had made the floor of Lily's room shake, Lily's mother remarked (after Petunia slammed the door shut, crying) that she sometimes wondered whether it was Lily or Petunia who was eldest. The others had merely shaken their heads and continued reading.

Reading was their big interest; they all enjoyed it. Petunia, though, did not. Her – Petunia's – regular explosions had become a part of everyday life in the house. Lily went up to her room or out to the garden when she recognized her sister's symptoms of a coming attack of fury. If Lily was near when Petunia got upset, Lily could easily get a big telling off just because of her impudence at existing and being a member of Petunia's family. Lily thought that very deep inside her almost empty head, Petunia knew that Lily could not help but exist; but that did not mean that Petunia liked it, nor did it prevent her from blaming Lily.

Lily sighed for the third time that morning. Petunia was the cause of many sighs from the rest of the Evans family – she was rarely nice to anybody and was quick to take offence at the smallest thing.

Petunia was almost always impolite to each and everyone whether she knew the person or not. That was also a reason for the Evans family's many sighs and concerns. Regular reports came from Petunia's school telling their parents (and Lily, who always managed to find a way to read the letters) about Petunia's latest rule breaking in school.

Lily was good at searching through and reading things since she had done it from the time she learned how to read by the age of five. She had never stopped since then. Lily's motto seemed to be: 'When you can do something and when you are enjoying it, why then stop?'

'Hoot! Hoot!' Lily's owl had just awakened and she probably wanted her owner's attention.

'Oh, Hildur,' said Lily. 'I must have forgotten you: I just complained to myself that I have no book, nor any company. That I was all alone. But now, I realize that I was wrong. I have you! Hildur hooted again, but now she hooted thrice. She sounded satisfied. Lily smiled, 'It is going to be nice starting school again, isn't it?'

'Hoot!'

'I am sure you will like it. Actually most of the students' owls do, and the school owls love the Owlery – but of course, it is their home. We are going –'

Lily suddenly heard a small sound on the steps; she was almost sure. She immediately froze in place and stayed so for a couple of minutes. Then, she rose as if she were a machine, and slowly approached her door. She remained silent and opened the door, just to see her father's back. 'Oh my **God**!'

'What, Lily dear?'

'Y-y-you … Oh, dear … You gave me a **real** fright!'

'Sorry,' he laughed. 'Didn't mean to frighten you … Do you want to help me making breakfast?'

'I would love to, dad,' Lily replied. 'I was just talking to Hildur before. I could not read, you know: I packed my books yesterday.'

'You are always doing everything as soon as possible and then you are left sitting, bored and waiting.' Her father still laughed.

'Well, Dad, I think about the possibility of oversleeping ourselves! Even if I ate breakfast on the train, there wouldn't be enough time to get ready and pack the trunk! And, what would happen if we had slept to ten? We would not have the time to drive to London, and therefore not to King's Cross either! And –'

'Well, I don't need to know what would happen, but you surely did the right thing when you packed yesterday, Lily.'

'Actually, I started a week ago with the less important things, or at least the ones I could not use at home, like the telescope or the Hogwarts school robes. The last things I packed were my books.'

'OK, dear,' Lily's father said. 'So you've packed everything except what you wear and your toothbrush?'

'Something like that, yeah.'

'Good,' said Lily's father. 'Then we should make breakfast and wake your mother up. I'm afraid it wouldn't be so good to wake Petunia up before you've left.'

- - - - -

'Morning, dears,' said Lily's mother. 'Thanks for breakfast; it's awesome, a very happy surprise. Especially when it was my turn to make it.' While saying the last sentence, she raised her left eyebrow. Though, she smiled widely at the same time.

'Well,' her husband began, 'we were hungry, and we didn't want to wait …'

'… And we thought we should surprise you by making breakfast,' Lily added and looked at her father with a touch of anger when her mother all of a sudden looked away. The glance told him how stupid he had been because of his unconscious implication that his wife had slept too long and that he and Lily did not want to wait for her to wake up. Her father answered with a sheepish smile, but looked away when his wife looked at them. An embarrassing silence fell over the kitchen and the members of the family began eating their breakfast.

Lily took a teacake and started buttering it. She also sliced some cheese and put the slices on her bread.

'Where is Petunia?' Lily's mother looked at her husband and her daughter.

'Where do you think? Still in bed, of course, I suppose.'

'Be happy you didn't wake her up,' her mother replied instead of Lily's father. 'There is no point waking her up when we're driving you to London; actually, I think it will be better – you won't have any chances to argue, nor it will be time for Petunia to poison your happiness. Some people say that people who are very like each other usually can't co-operate, but you and Petunia are so **different. **You are the exception which confirms the rule.'

'Maybe we are, Mum.'

--

After forty-five minutes of driving, they arrived at King's Cross Station in the capital. Lily's father left his wife and daughter by the car to go after a luggage trolley. When he came back, he took Lily's heavy trunk out of the boot. Lily had to help him lift her heavy baggage. Since she was taking ten classes, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Astrology, Transfiguration and Potions, her trunk was very heavy with all the different books.

Lily mused. Remus also had ten subjects – but since he was a year older than Lily they never attended the same classes. Remus did not participate in the Potions class, though he studied Divination. Lily did not study Divination since she thought it was very wishy-washy. Remus was not very good at Potions, and therefore he did not attend that class.

'Lily, dear?' her father called.

'Oh, lost myself in thoughts … Again. What is it you wanted to say, father?'

'That you should hurry up now,' he replied, 'the clock says twenty minutes to eleven. Your train will leave at eleven o'clock, won't it?'

'Yes, dad; the train will leave at eleven o'clock. So we should hurry up if we want to be sure I arrive on time.'

--

'Hello, Lily!'

'Hello,' Lily replied as she went over to her friend Remus with her luggage trolley. 'How was last month?'

'It was very good,' Remus smiled. 'I was at James', you know, so they got me making a lot of mischief.' Lily noticed Sirius smile in an odd way, but Lily did not think much more about it. Instead, she asked what kind of mischief Remus' friends had gotten him to do.

'Oh, just the old –' Remus was interrupted by a loud noise which reminded the students that they – if they were not there yet – should hurry up and get on the train. Peter and Remus got on the train while Sirius, James and Lily handed them the five trunks. Sirius, James and Peter went looking for a compartment while Remus and Lily made their way to the Perfect carriage. Lily had become a Prefect last year, and the year before Lily had received the badge in her letter, Remus had received his. Now, he was Head Boy.

As they walked through the wagon – Lily had just warned a second year who had hit another second year on the head with his wand – the train started moving with a wrench. Lily almost fell, but Remus gently steadied her as she regained her balance.

'Thanks,' she said as she rose. Lily assumed they had just pulled out of King's Cross. 'I think we should hurry now; the meeting will begin soon … The clock says five past eleven, and we should be there in five minutes.'

'Yes, we had better hurry,' said Remus. Lily nodded as she began walking faster; Remus did the same. They arrived at the entrance to the Prefects' Carriage at nine past eleven. Remus opened the door. 'Ladies first!'

'Thanks,' Lily smiled as she entered the compartment. All of the Perfects were there.

'Hello,' a tall brown haired girl said, 'My name is Lucy Clearwater …'

'And my name is Remus Lupin. Some of you are new Prefects and some of you are old. We shall inform you about the school rules.'

'Yes,' said the Head Girl. 'You probably already know the basics, for example, that you should not use magic in the corridors, et cetera. We need to tell you lot about what you **should** and what you **should not** do as Hogwarts Prefects.'

'You can't take any points,' Remus picked up. 'Only the teachers, the Headmaster, Madam Pomfery, Madam Pince and Mr Filch can take points from a student. That means only the staff – the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds, Hagrid, qualifies as staff – can give and take points. A very serious breaking of the rules can result in expulsion, but you probably knew all that.'

'Please, do **not** abuse your position as Prefects. A few people have done so. Please, look at your position as an honorary task; the Headmaster has carefully chosen one girl and one boy from every Hogwarts House and he trusts them greatly. I think we should follow these Prefect Rules – otherwise, it would be a way of betraying the Headmaster's confidence in us.'

'Any questions?' Remus looked out over the group of Prefects around him. 'No one? Very well. We should patrol the corridors occasionally and catch people who are breaking school rules and so on. This meeting is considered over.' They all rose and went out of the compartment. Maybe they would go sit with their friends. At last, only Lily and Remus were left. 'Well,' said Remus. 'Where are you going to sit?'

'I don't know,' Lily replied. 'Where I can find an empty chair – or better, empty compartment – I suppose.'

Remus smiled. 'Come and sit with me, James, Peter and Sirius then!'

'Thanks!' Lily and Remus left the Prefects carriage. 'But … Where are they? They did not say anything to you, did they?'

'Hmm … No, they didn't. I suppose we'll have to go and search for them,' said Remus thoughtfully.

'Yes. We will find them soon enough. All we have to do is listen and see which compartment is the noisiest.' Remus did not answer Lily, but she saw him smile.

Twenty minutes later, they found Remus' friends. Lily appeared to be right. There was a lot of noise in the compartment. Remus opened the door, 'Hello there. Please, talk softer.'

James sat down when he saw Lily, and soon the others followed. 'Hey, Evans,' said James Potter in a strange way. He looked at Lily all the time, who ignored him and sat down next to Remus. As Remus started talking to the others, Lily took out a Charms book and started reading, but she could not help from overhearing Remus and his friends.

--

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when the little witch arrived outside the compartment, and knocked on the door. When she opened it, Sirius, James and, of course, Peter started buying all sorts of food from her trolley. Lily bought some Chocolate Frogs, and Remus did the same. Lily was not very fond of sweets – but she was very fond of chocolate. So was Remus. The others had bought a small mountain of sweets. As they ate their sweets Sirius wondered aloud if they should play Exploding Snap.

'Am I allowed to play with you?' asked Lily.

'Of course,' said Remus. 'Otherwise I won't play, either.'

'OK, OK,' Sirius said. 'Lily – be our guest!' Sirius won the game easily and James accused him of cheating. Lily and Remus just laughed at the two of them. The, Lily suddenly looked at the clock.

'We really should change into our school robes now; there is only about half an hour until we are at Hogwarts.'

'OK,' Remus replied. They took down their trunks, and put the black school robes on. Remus adjusted his Head Boy Crest; Lily adjusted her Prefect Crest as well. 'We're almost there, I think,' Remus continued. They took Hildur and James' owl down from the luggage rack. Five munutes later, Remus turned out to have been right. The train slowed down and stopped. 'So,' he said, 'let's get a carriage to take us to the castle.'

A little later, they entered one of the wagons, which smelled like straw. _Almost at my second home_, Lily thought. The horseless cab started moving from the Hogsmeade Station. They talked a little as they approached the school.

'I'm starving,' Peter said. 'It's good it'll be dinner soon. I'd die if I had to wait for an hour more. I hope there aren't too many first years; if there aren't the Sorting will take less time. Ugh! I'm so hungry!'

'Yeah, yeah, we know. You're hungry. **What** a surprise!' James rolled his eyes up to heaven. The wagon rolled, and the castle came closer and closer as they travelled forwards. Lily because happier and happier. She loved her home and her parents, but she loved the school castle with its towers and turrets. As they approached she could see that the windows of the Great Hall were lit: Lily knew the teachers and the Headmaster were sitting inside waiting for the students to arrive.

Since it was Friday, the lessons would not start until the fourth of September; Lily had to wait two full days for the lessons to start! Peter, Sirius and James thought it was great, but Lily and Remus disliked the fact. On the other hand, Lily thought it was good for the first years; they would have two days to stroll about the corridors and try and learn how to find the various classrooms. It was very hard to find class rooms at Hogwarts if you had not been there before. Actually, Lily sometimes still found herself in corridors she had never been in earlier.

The wagons stopped. Remus and Lily gave their things and animals to James, Sirius and Peter. Then they told students where they were supposed to go and where they needed to put their luggage. It was also their job to make sure nobody got hurt. One of the responsibilities of the Prefects was to make sure the students got to the Great Hall where the teachers were waiting.

The Prefects worked together calmly so the students would not panic in the crowd. Luckily enough, no one panicked, nor did anybody get hurt. Lily understood their stress and eagerness to get food – but she thought the students should know that the queue would be faster if people would not push one another trying to be first. She actually took her wand and pointed it at her neck.

'Sonorus!'

'HELLO EVERYBODY! MY NAME IS LILY EVANS AND I AM A GRYFFINDOR PREFECT! THE QUEUE WILL **NOT** MOVE FASTER IF EVERYBODY TRIES TO GET IN AT THE SAME TIME – ACTUALLY, IT WILL TAKE A LOT OF UNNECESSARY TIME! PLEASE CALM DOWN AND FORM A QUEUE. THE CEREMONIES WILL NOT START UNTIL THE FIRST YEARS HAVE ARRIVED!'

The students in the Entrance Hall formed a queue, even if it was not straight. They reluctantly waited patiently and fifteen minutes later, all students were inside.

Professor Dumbledore raised his goblet in Lily's direction when she found a place next to Remus by the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Lily grinned back and raised her glass, too. The Headmaster smiled.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I henceforth declare that I take back what I said in the last chapter. I am drafting Chapter 9 now. My recent goal is that this story will be finished in 2010. I hope and pray that it will NOT take a year before Chapter 5 is published. All people concerned with this story are doing their best for quicker updates.

**But, just because we are aware of, and we all wish to apology for the delay, it does not mean we ignore the problem!** From Chapter 5 and on, we will have yet another person in our little 'crew'. I would like to thank my friend Amanda for agreeing to help me as a **preBeta** who will check my chapters before I send them to my actual Beta. My Beta is still Janis – whom, by the way, I would love to thank for her time and help – but my preBeta is called Amanda, and goes under various pseudonyms, as _Jultomten_ (Swedish for Father Christmas) on FanFiction dot net. She also refers to herself as _Madmushroom_ and _Grammatikhora_ (_Grammar whore_). Hopefully, updates will be in a higher flow. We are doing everything we can. A preBeta checks the story before the main Beta does, as a way of lifting the burden for the Beta.

I know this might get annoying in the end, but please, do drop me a review if you have read some part of this story. Trust me; I would love if every reader did. You do not have to comment, even if reviews are _highly_ appreciated, whether you hate or praise my work. (They are even more adored if constructive – I usually say that 'this is awesome' is less worth than 'this story sucked because this and that' in my opinion.) Please – for me.  
I know this is a late update and I am perfectly aware of the fact it has taken a year since last chapter was published. I do realize I might have dropped a few – if not most – of my readers. But this has to do with personal issues for everyone that has to do with this story, unfortunately.  
And, as the major planning and core of the story was set in 2006, it will NOT follow _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_. This was decided in June 2007, but it would not have mattered. But as my major plan is already done, it will be FREE OF SPOILERS, i.e not compatible with _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ – although it has been almost a year since the publication.


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